In the heady times of 19th century London, when cabinet shops turned out thousands of chests, bureaus, and other furniture requiring dovetails and other joints, a cabinetmaker was trained to mark out, saw accurately, and make tight joints as second nature. There are three reasons they could do this: first, an apprentice who couldn't get the hang of it quickly would get fired or find another line of work. Second, cabinetmakers in big shops had areas of specialties, so the apprentices who cut the joints probably did little else. Finally, practice makes perfect - after the first few thousand joints you get good at it.

But nowadays many woodworkers have trouble with dovetailing. You need to lay out a joint and then saw it accurately. Sawing is the part that most people have trouble with. Sawing dovetails freehand can be learned with practice and attention. We recommend it for everyone. But until you have this skill - or if you're doing extensive dovetailing on a particular project, a magnetic saw guide is the easiest way to ensure consistent results and get whatever spacing or custom look you want. You will still have to accurately lay out the joint, you will still have to chop the dovetails, but the hardest step - sawing consistent straight lines - will be a thousand times easier.

The AngleMag is very simple in concept. It consists of an aluminum body that clamps onto the work. For wide wood, you can use all three clamps; for narrower stock, even a single clamp works well. The important thing is that the AngleMag is clamped consistently with the body flush down onto the end of the work. You can clamp wood up to 2" thick, which adds a lot to its versatility. The body of the AngleMag holds the guide shaft. The guide shaft is a rod with grooves milled into it and a magnetic guide at one end. The angle of the guide can be adjusted from straight across to 45 degrees. For dovetailing, you set the guide to whatever angle you want your dovetails to be and lock it in place.

To position the guide precisely where you want it to cut, you move the rod and then lock it in place using the two small thumbscrews on the top of the body, then tighten the thumbscrews into one of the four grooves running the length of the rod. This is the key to the AngleMag. To position the guide for accurate saw cuts going the other way, you just rotate the rod and lock it in the opposite groove. To switch from cutting the tails to the pins, or vice versa, just rotate and lock the rod 90 degrees. Consult the manual that comes with the AngleMag for more details on the operation.

The way the AngleMag works is simple: strong magnets hold your saw against the guide so you saw straight. Unlike a mitre box or a non-magnetic jig, magnets give the saw no place to wander. Almost any saw can be used - even a saw that is less than ideal for unguided joinery - because with the guide ensuring that the saw cuts straight, only a saw that is seriously out of whack could cause a problem. The important thing is that the saw is either unbacked or is wide enough so that the saw can cut deep enough in the work before the back interferes with the magnetic guide. A "short back" dozuki saw works fine (and that's what we will be using here), as does a big Western-style tenon saw.

The particular saw we are using, a"short back" dozuki shown in the photograph with all the other tools, is pretty inexpensive, has a fairly thick blade (.5mm), and is filed combo rip / crosscut. It cuts fairly slowly but because the AngleMag guides the saw this isn't a problem and the saw is great for this purpose.